Users of software applications designed to support business processes often need to access a set of functions and information from multiple screens of a graphical user interface (GUI), no matter where inside the application the user is located and without having to leave a current context. Examples of such information or functions are: Title, Navigation, Notifications, Settings, Help, Logout, Profile, Link to Start Screen, Search, and generally available Objects and Tools.
Conventionally, access is provided by sacrificing display space to form a so-called “shell,” usually located at the top or bottom of the display area. The space taken up by the shell would be better used for displaying content of the application. As more and more functions and information need to be accessible, these shells can become very crowded or nested, especially where users expect to have access to the same functionality across multiple devices (on their mobile devices as well as their desktop computer, for example). Often, the space on a display of a desktop computer is not used optimally because a compromise is made between desktop and mobile versions of the user interface in order to balance access versus ease of viewing.